By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

NPD Totals US Video Game Spending for September 2011, DS >50m - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 13 October 2011 / 7,673 Views

NPD figures for August 28, 2011 to October 1, 2011 have arrived. On a dollar basis, it was another down month for the industry although software figures did jump a tiny bit with the late release of the strongly performing Madden. 

NPD Revenue Sept 2011

Nonetheless, hardware sales have arrived, along with the multiplatform top sellers ranking.

US HW Sales in September 2011, Red are Estimates

Hardware sales dropped 5% from September 2010 even though seven platforms can be purchased at retail instead of six. Excluding 3DS, hardware sales dropped about 22%. On a monthly basis, hardware sales did increase - but since August 2011 was a week shorter than September for tracking, weekly hardware sales only increased by about 3.5%. Given the increase in time from August to September, the DS drop off is particularly notable, as weekly sales fell from over 41,000 per week to less than 30,000 per week. PS3 easily had the largest jump on both a monthly and yearly comparison basis, with weekly sales jumping from 55,000 per week in August to 75,000 per week in September. Wii remained the flattest of all systems, changing virtually nothing year over year or month over month when hardware sales are calculated on a weekly basis.

With the latest set of data, Nintendo announced that DS hardware sales have topped 50m units in the United States according to NPD. By my research, that makes DS the first video game system to top 50m in a single country in the history of the industry, as PS2 is at about 46m in the USA with nothing else particularly close to 50m in any country anywhere. If Nintendo chooses to keep DS around at say, $50-$100, a run to 55m or just past it in the US is still possible. Nintendo also noted that by NPD 273m DS games have sold to date in the USA, for an attach rate (by sell through figures) of about 5.5 games per DS. On a shipment basis, Nintendo had announced 346.3m DS games shipped to the Americas through June 2011 and 55.69m DS systems shipped so the figures do broadly fit together in line with our usual breakdown of the Americas region as 87% US vs. 13% for the remaining major markets (Canada, Mexico and Brazil).

On a 12-month basis, aligned from launch, Wii and X360 remain ahead of the PS2 pace. X360's run ahead of PS2 has been a much more recent trend, but at this point in its shelf life PS2 was starting to rapidly weaken in the US. Wii has simply remained at the PS2 pace to about 4m above it over its time on the market. PS3 may actually briefly match the late PS2 pace as well in the USA, as the later console is positioned to make another run at 5m units in a 12 month period during 2011.

Wii, PS2, X360, PS3 Pacing in the US

As of September 2011, Wii has sold 36.51m in the USA in a period of 59 months. In the same period, PS3 has sold 17.90m units. Microsoft has sold 28.84m X360s in the USA over the past 71 months. For comparison, PS2 had sold 29.64m units in 59 months, and 34.28m in 71 months in the USA. The PS2 reached 36.55m in the USA in 75 months, so Wii is still about 16 months ahead of the PS2 pace. With PS2 reaching 28.84m in 57 months, Microsoft's X360 is still about 14 months off the PS2 pace (46.1m ltd) in the USA, although X360 continues to eat away at that gap.

NPD reported the following games as the top sellers on a multiplatform basis for September 2011:

01. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) Electronic Arts
02. Gears of War 3 (360) Microsoft  > 2 million
03. Dead Island (360, PS3, PC) Deep Silver
04. FIFA Soccer 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, 3DS) Electronic Arts
05. NHL 12 (360, PS3) Electronic Arts
06. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (360, PS3, PC) Square Enix Inc
07. Resistance 3 (PS3) Sony (Corp)
08. Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Wii, NDS, 360, 3DS, PS3, PSP, PC) LucasArts
09. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC) Activision Blizzard
10. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (360, PS3, PC) THQ

More figures will be updated into the software ranking if they become available. In recent months however, Just Dance 2 has routinely topped 100,000 units month in and month out, so its pretty safe to say the entire top ten is over 100,000 units.

Contact VGChartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com


More Articles

11 Comments
bobgamez (on 13 October 2011)

Good sign for all companies, 3ds sales way up, 360 sales way up(probably because of gears), ps3 sales are way up, hell even the wii is up.

  • +8
MARCUSDJACKSON (on 14 October 2011)

PS3 performed better then expected in Sept. i'm sure. the rest no surprise. PS360 alnost sold the same at one point.

  • +7
postofficebuddy (on 13 October 2011)

Star Fox sold 130k. Ico and Shadow sold 92k. Kirby Mass Attack sold 66k,

  • +7
Killiana1a (on 13 October 2011)

No Star Fox 64 3D in the top 10 games. If Star Fox games cannot cause people to buy hardware then it is safe to say it is not a system seller like Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda.

  • +7
NintendoFanDj Killiana1a (on 14 October 2011)

and Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Brain Training, and Nintendogs

  • +1
yo_john117 (on 14 October 2011)

Wow the PS3 was seriously undertracked in the US this month!

  • +4
jneul (on 14 October 2011)

wow bet no-one was expecting that :-D

  • +2
Colocho (on 16 October 2011)

Yes, it appears the PS3 was seriously Undertracked . based on the NPD numbers, PS3 did an average of 75K units a week for the month of September, in the US alone! and these are US number only!! ... I expect a big adjustment soon.

  • +1
Ail (on 13 October 2011)

Very poor 3DS numbers considering the price cut...

  • -6
Conegamer Ail (on 14 October 2011)

200% increase compared to before the price cut with no games (really) and the second best selling console of the month (the other having the biggest exclusive so far this year) is 'disappointing' is it?

What is 'disappointing' is your attempt to dampen the sales. 'Meh'? Maybe. I'd say good. But certainly, CERTAINLY, not 'very poor'.

  • +2
Conegamer Ail (on 14 October 2011)

200% increase compared to before the price cut with no games (really) and the second best selling console of the month (the other having the biggest exclusive so far this year) is 'disappointing' is it?

What is 'disappointing' is your attempt to dampen the sales. 'Meh'? Maybe. I'd say good. But certainly, CERTAINLY, not 'very poor'.

  • +1